X. You have heard of many great things performed for you by Divine Providence in the former particulars; but there is an eminent favour it bestows on the saints, which hath not yet been considered, and indeed is too little minded by us, and that is, the aid and assistance it gives the people of God in the great work of mortification.
Mortification of our sinful affections and passions is the one half of our sanctification; Dead indeed anto sin, but alive unto God,” Rom. vi. 11. Itis the great evidence of our interest in Christ. See Gal. v. 24; Rom. vi. 5—9. It is our safety in the hour of temptation. The corruptions in the world are through lust, 2 Pet. i. 4. Our instrumental fitness for service depends much upon it, 2 Tim. ii. 21; John xv. 2. How great a service to our souls, therefore, must that be by which this blessed work is carried on upon them!
Now, there are two means or instruments employed in this work, “The Spirit who effects it internally, Rom. viii. 13, and Providence, which assists it externally. The Spirit indeed is the principal agent, upon whose operation the success of this work depends; and all the providences in the world can never effect it without him. But these are secondary and subordinate means, which, by the blessing of the Spirit upon them, have a great stroke in the work. How they are so serviceable to this end and purpose, I shall open in the following account.
1. More generally. The most wise God orders the dispensations of Providence in a blessed subordination to the work of his Spirit. “There is a sweet harmony betwixt them in their distinct workings. They all meet in that one blessed issue which God hath by the counsel of his will directed them to, Eph. i. 11, and Rom. viii. 28. Hence jt is that the Spirit is said to be in, and to order the motions of, the wheels of Providence, Ezek. i. 20; and so they move together by consent. Now, one great part of the Spirit’s internal work being to destroy sin in the people of God, see how conformable to his design external providences are steered and ordered, in the following particulars.
There is in all the regenerate, a strong propension and inclination to sin, and in that lies a principal part of the power of sin. Of this, Paul sadly complains: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members,” Rom. vii. 23. And every believer daily finds it to his grief. Oh it is hard to forbear those things that grieve God! God hath made a hedge about us, and fenced us against sin by his laws; but there is a proneness in nature to break over the hedge, and that against the very resistance of the Spirit of God in us. Now see, in this case, the concurrence and assistance of Providence for the prevention of sin; look, as the Spirit internally resists those sinful inclinations, so Providence externally lays bars and blocks in our way to hinder and prevent sin. And this is the meaning of those places lately cited, Hos. ii. 6, and 2 Cor. xii. 7. So Job xxxiii. 17—19. There is many a bodily distemper inflicted on this very score, to be a clog to prevent sin! O bear them patiently upon this consideration.
Basil was sorely grieved with an inveterate headache, he earnestly prayed that it might be removed. But no sooner was he freed of this clog, but he felt the inordinate motions of lust; which made him pray for his headache again; so it might be with many of us, if our clogs were cut off. -_ of
A question may be moved here, Whether 1t be the genius and property of a gracious spirit to forbear sin, because of the rod of affliction. They have surely higher motives and nobler principles than these. ‘This is the temper of a carnal and slavish spirit. Indeed it is so when this is the sole or principal restraint from sin; when a man abhors not sin, because of the intrinsic filth, but only because of the troublesome consequences and effects. But this is vastly different from the case of the saints under sanctified afflictions; for, as they have higher motives and nobler principles, so they have lower and more sensible ones too; and these are, in their kind and place, very useful to them. Besides, you must know, that afflictions work in another way upon gracious hearts to restrain them from sin, or warn them against sin, than they do upon others. It is not so much the smart of the rod which they feel, as the tokens of God’s displeasure, which affright and scare them. Thou renewest thy witnesses against me,” &e. Job x. 17, and this is that which principally affects them. 0 Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure,” Psal. vi. 1, and O Lord, correct me, but with judgment, not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing,” Jer. x. 24. And surely this is no low and common argument. A
2. Notwithstanding this double sense of God’s command and preventive aftlictions, yet sin is too hard for the best of men; their corruptions carry them through all to sin: and when it is so, not only doth the Spirit work internally, but Providence also works externally, in order to their reduction. The ways of sin are not only made bitter unto them by the remorse of conscience, but by those afflictive rods upon the outward man, with which God also follows it; and, in both these respects 1 find that place expounded Whoso breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him,” Eccles. x. 8. If, as some expound it, the hedge be the law of God, then the serpent is the remorse of conscience, and the sharp teeth of affliction, which he shall quickly feel, if he be one that belongs to God. a a,